What is precision medicine? How do you define an individual approach to treatment and health care? When asked for the first thing that leaps to mind when you think “precision” or “personalized” medicine, most answer that it is using genes to determine how to treat a disease. Is this true? Is precision medicine limited to just genes? What is meant by genes? Gene mutations – changes in the gene sequence... Read More
There is so much talk about immunotherapy these days. Sidney Kimmel and Michael Bloomberg just donated money to establish the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Johns Hopkins University. The Institute of Medicine discussed what policies should be considered with this new emerging treatment paradigm. New ideas about how to combine immunotherapy with other cancer therapies are emerging almost daily. After many years of intense research into how the immune... Read More
Immunotherapy (IT) has changed — and will continue to change — cancer treatment. Although only about 25% of patients who receive IT have a response, when patients do respond to treatment, the response is nothing short of amazing. Patients who just 5 years ago had a 10% chance of survival of over 5 years are now 10 years cancer free with no indication of recurrence. I personally know two people... Read More